You see your splendor gone with the wind disappear;
You waft with resplendent feather from year to year.
Your tears have dyed the flowers red in alien hill;
But when spring comes to your garden, grass looks green still.
Among the leaves, trees dark in rain long you stay;
At moonset you wail and wait for the dawning day.
On Southern River you sadden the setting sun.
Why should you drown in grief the boat of roaming son?
Original Poem:
「子规」
吴融
举国繁华委逝川，羽毛飘荡一年年。
他山叫处花成血，旧苑春来草似烟。
雨暗不离浓绿树，月斜长吊欲明天。
湘江日暮声凄切，愁杀行人归去船。
Interpretation:
This poem, inspired by the legend of the cuckoo (杜鹃鸟), uses its sorrowful cries and wandering plight to express the poet’s lamentation over the fall of a glorious nation, personal setbacks in his career, and feelings of rootless drifting. The imagery of the cuckoo is intertwined with the story of the Shu King transforming into this bird, forming the central motif of the poem.
First Couplet: The cuckoo has abandoned its prosperous homeland of mountains and rivers and floats around year after year.
The poet opens by contrasting the past grandeur of the nation with the relentless passage of time, likening it to a river’s ceaseless flow. The image of “feathers drifting year after year” aligns with the cuckoo’s wandering existence, immediately setting a tone of tragedy and melancholy.
Second Couplet: Crying in a foreign land, the flowers seem to be colored blood red, but spring comes and the old garden grass still flourishes.
This couplet juxtaposes “foreign hills” and “old garden,” contrasting the cuckoo’s mournful cries in exile with the thriving vitality of its homeland. The line “cries turn flowers to blood” vividly portrays the legend of the cuckoo crying tears of blood. Meanwhile, “spring brings grass like mist” depicts the homeland’s grass flourishing indifferently. This contrast between warmth and cold, motion and stillness, heightens the cuckoo’s image of solitude and despair.
Third Couplet: In the darkness of the rain, it hides in the green bushes and cries; at the beginning of the night, it meets the bright sky and chirps solemnly.
This couplet shifts to the environment, describing the cuckoo’s persistent cries amidst dark rain and the faint moonlight. Its sorrowful voice seems to pierce through the dense foliage and dim skies, continuously lamenting its boundless grief. These descriptions not only evoke a desolate atmosphere but also underline the unyielding sadness of the cuckoo’s cries.
Final Couplet: As the day was getting late, it chirped forlornly by the Xiangjiang River, making the travelers on the boat returning home sad to the extreme.
The final couplet sets the scene at dusk along the Xiang River, blending the cuckoo’s mournful cries with the traveler’s melancholy. The cuckoo’s “mournful cries” echo across the river, stirring the traveler’s buried nostalgia and unbearable memories. This intertwining of the cuckoo’s lament with human sorrow deepens the poem’s emotional resonance, making it profoundly touching.
This poem uses the cuckoo’s tragic fate as a metaphor to convey the poet’s grief over the nation’s decline and his personal sense of rootlessness. The language is concise, the imagery profound, and the emotions sincere, creating a moving piece. The cuckoo’s sorrowful cries run through the entire poem, serving as both its central motif and emotional anchor, showcasing the poet’s mastery in artistic expression and his deep-seated patriotism.
Poem translator:
Xu Yuan-chong (许渊冲)
About the poet:
Wu Rong (吴融), 850 - 903 A.D., was a poet of the Tang Dynasty, a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.
